Welcome Back to YouRoots! We are going to the Mediterranean for a plant based feast today! Yet another easy to prepare recipe that will be sure to impress and make you look like a rock start in the kitchen. Well maybe not “make you look” as I am sure you are already amazing in the kitchen, especially if you’ve been recreating our other recipes!
Chef Bernie is originally from Austria and has traveled all over the Mediterranean with Italy being one of his favorite spots to visit. Surprisingly, Conrad also spent some time in Italy and actually competed in a half marathon in the small city of Brescia, if you can believe that. He definitely indulged in a lot of pizza & pasta before, during and after the event.
Today we are going to be making a Creamy Polenta paired with some grilled veggies and your own homemade marinade. Along with some homemade Hummis to get us going and some maple Baked Pears to finish everything off.
Ingredients
Creamy Polenta:
- 1 cup of corn meal
- 4 cups of water
- 1 teaspoon of Sea Salt
- 1 tbsp of Nutritional yeast
- ¼ preserved lemon
- 2 pieces of sun dried tomatoes
Grilled Vegetables:
- Assortment of Veggies: Asparagus, Artichokes, Cut Zucchini, Cut Eggplant, Red Peppers and Yellow Peppers
Veggie marination
- 2 tbsp spoon of olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 bunch of fresh basil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Salt / pepper to taste
Hummus:
- 1 can of chickpeas with liquid
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp of nutritional yeast
- ½ cup Tahini
- Juice of one fresh lemon
- four roasted garlic
- pinch of salt and pepper
Baked Pears:
- 2 pears peeled cut in half and deseeded
- pinch of cinnamon
- 2 tbsp of maple syrup
- ¼ cup of water or pear juice
- ¼ cup of walnuts.
Ice Cream:
- 2 frozen Bananas
- pinch of cinnamon
Great, let’s get started. First, get your water into a pot and bring it to a boil. After that, add in the cornmeal, and salt, reduce heat and simmer for 12 minutes and stir every couple of minutes until it starts to thicken and get a nice consistency. Once that occurs, add in the nutritional yeast, lemon and sun dried tomatoes. That’s it, you have your finished product, ready to serve!
Time to prep the veggies, this part is simple, cut all of the veggies up into portions that you can grill on either the BBQ or frying pan if you don’t have a grill. You can use the photo below as a reference point.
For the marination, start by getting out your mortar pestle, start working on the garlic and then the basil until everything is mixed well. Add in the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, give everything one last mix. Once completed, marinate your veggies and get them on the grill!
Great, get the veggies and creamy Polenta plated and enjoy! You can use the photo at the beginning of the blog for a creative way to plate the dish.
Now it’s time for our easy to make Hummis. All you do is literally take the chickpeas, olive oil, nutritional yeast, Tahini, juice of one lemon, garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper and blend everything together, it’s really that easy! Get creative with your presentation to impress your significant other, friends and family, see below.
Now I know you’re probably very full but sometimes you have to treat yourself, especially if it’s not a heavily processed dessert!
Take your two pears and peel off the skin, cut in half and take out the seeds. Put them into a cast iron pan with a pinch of cinnamon, 2 tbsp of maple syrup, ¼ cup of water or pear juice and ¼ cup of walnuts. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 C turning once at the halfway point.
For the “ice cream”, you guessed it, frozen bananas and cinnamon blended together. You can let the cast iron cool down and have everything plated and shared between everyone.
Thanks again for taking time out of your day and we really hope that you are finding value out of our blog posts and a few laughs from our videos. Stay tuned for another weekly blog post with another great recipe.
If you have any feedback or comments, good or bad, please let us know below, we welcome all feedback as we are always looking to improve. From the both of us remember to be positive, live with purpose and eat nutritious and delicious wholesome plant based foods!
